Buzz Aldrin has been working with engineers from Purdue University to transform his ideas for an Earth-Mars Cycler into reality. The astronaut predicts that by 2030 the first astronaut explorers will take missions to Mars lasting 5 years or longer to observe the planet, which would be followed by colonizers, permanent settlements, and eventually attempts to terraform the red planet and create a habitable Earth-like atmosphere. In 2005, Aldrin told Popular Mechanics, “The Cycler system alters the philosophy behind a Mars program. It makes possible the dream of regular flights to the Red Planet and a permanent human presence there. That’s the only way we’ll ever succeed in taking mankind’s next giant leap: a subway-in-the-sky between our planet and our future second home.” Lego aficionado Andrew Becraft has created his own rendition of the Aldrin Mars Cycler. See more at the BrothersBrick.com.

Buzz had a great idea and I bet even better ideas are available in the untapped minds; the minds that are not from traditional think tanks and higher education. We may have a bunch of Einsteins in 2nd and 3rd world countries. If we could tap the minds that are completely illiterate, maybe we would find some more answers. Perhaps they could take us in directions our traditional ways could never even imagine. Maybe there is something the old addage “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”